The Decomposition of Zinc Ferrite in Electric Arc Furnace Dust by Carbon

The objective of this research is to study the mechanism of the decomposition of zinc ferrite to obtain crude zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron oxide by using carbon (activated carbon) powder as the reducing agent. Zinc ferrite could be mostly found in electric arc furnace dust (EAFD). Carbon with a purity of 99.99 percent by weight was ground to be fine powder with an average size of 75 microns. Then the mixer between zinc ferrite with carbon powder and EAFD with carbon at the ratio of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 by mole was carried out. The samples were treated in the range of temperatures at 600, 700 and 800 °C in TGA. The treated samples were analyzed by XRD in order to identify the phase transformation of zinc ferrite. It was found that the quantity of zinc ferrite, both either pure zinc ferrite and the zinc ferrite in EAFD were decreased after treating by carbon when using treating time at 120 minutes with the temperatures of 600, 700 and 800 °C, and ratio of zinc ferrite with carbon powder at 1:3 by mole. Moreover about 70% of zinc ferrite was decomposed to be zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron oxides.